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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

1940 Census ~ Goldstein Family in Woodbine

With the 1940 US Census having been released last week without a name index, one family I was able to find relatively quickly was my mother-in-law with her older brother and parents in the Borough of Woodbine, New Jersey, as Woodbine was a relatively small community; the entire community is in one Enumeration District (E.D. 5-48).

The Goldstein family lived on Jackson Avenue, and the houses were not numbered.

Detail from 1940 Census, Morris Goldstein family

This census record tells us that Morris Goldstein owned his house and it was valued at $2,500 in 1940. ("No" means it was not a farm.) The circled X after Morris' name indicates that he was the one who answered the census taker's questions. The record indicates that he was 41 years old, yet I have other records which indicate that he was a couple of weeks shy of his 43rd birthday. Rose is listed (correctly) at age 37. Son Stanley is 15 (about to turn 16 on April 13) and daughter Anita is 13.

The last name in the household, Gunter Lippmann, an 18-year-old from Germany, is recorded as a lodger, though my mother-in-law has no recollection of him.

Some interesting features of this census include:

Highest grade of school completed: Morris is listed as having completed 4th grade, Rose completed 8th grade, Stanley had completed 2 years of high school and Anita had completed 6th grade. Morris was born in Russia (actually that should have been Romania) and was a naturalized citizen; Rose was born in New Jersey and the children were born in New York.

In addition to birth location, this census indicates where the family lived five years previously, which for the Goldsteins, was in the same house. In fact, the family lived in this house in 1930. The lodger lived in Breslau, Germany in April 1935.

More detail from 1940 Census, Morris Goldstein family

Additional information about employment is found in the 1940 Census. Residents age 14 and over were asked about where they were working in the week prior to April 1, 1940.

To the left is a clear printed copy of the headings for the first five columns in the above census record detail.

Morris is recorded as having "a job, business, etc." and the description is "Examiner, mens' clothing" in "Mens' Clothing Factory." (Why that is not a "Yes" in column (21), I'm not sure.) He worked 26 weeks and made $600 in 1939.